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Saturday, 3 March 2018

Mixed reaction trails Anthony Joshua's comment about his son and niece in an interview

Boxing heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua is currently a hot topic over comment about his son and niece in an interview last year that have resurfaced online.

During the interview with GQ in March 2017, Joshua was asked about whether he is a strict father to his son, Joseph.
He answered that he doesn’t believe that he’s too firm with his son, drawing comparisons to the way in which he treats his niece.

“I don’t think I’m that strict with Joseph, I don’t know why. But with my niece I’m strict,” he said.

“I think it is because she is older, but also he’s a boy - he’s going to be a man’s man, he’ll want to spread his wings be a Jack-the-lad, build his character.

“But with my niece, there is none of that Jack-the-lad nonsense for her!

“My view is you have to be a good woman, respectful, one day you will be someone’s wife, you have to learn family morals… what it is to be a good woman.”

He was also asked about his relationship with his dad. He said.

"It’s
good, you know. He’s got seven other children, so he is obviously busy
with his kids. He was originally born and raised in Nigeria, so that’s
where he is now.

"And I still chat to him, but really I feel as though I
am my own man. Some people are imitations of their parents, but since
the age when I started boxing, my dad was always travelling so I have
made a lot of my own decisions. I do have the utmost respect for him
though, because without him there would be no me."

And what he wants for his son, he said:

"Right now, he needs to be nurtured and taught to how to love. He is a free spirit at the moment. His mother, my mother, and his grandmother need to nurture him, so that he feels loved. I do that as well, but when I look at my son I feel that he needs to gain inspiration from me.

In the future, there will come a time when he will need to come to me and ask me things about life, and even simple things like explain the square route of something. So I need to educate myself so I can answer those questions and inspire him.

The thing is, he won’t be young forever and it is when he is older that he will need to know that he can completely depend on me. He needs to look at me like I am a superhero, and that he can come to me for whatever he needs. That’s one of the reasons I am looking to improve myself, be smarter, so that I can help him on his path.

I won’t let him get away with the stuff I did at school. I wasn’t bad and didn’t get in lots of trouble, but that is not what school is about. It’s about working and learning."

Lots of people have taken to social media to react to Joshua’s point of view about his son and niece, with some describing his words as “sexist and misogynistic”, while others believe he was on point.